24 January 2012

Linux.conf.au coming back to Canberra!

| johnboy
Join the conversation
52
linuxconf poster

What better way for the nerds of Canberra to celebrate the Centenary than gathering at ANU for linux.conf.au!

Canberra turns 100 next year. That’s pretty old, but we’re pretty sure that she still knows how to party. All of Canberra will have their party shoes on during 2013, including the geeks. And what better way to have a geek party than to host the best Linux conference in the southern hemisphere, right here in the middle of our town?

Linux Australia announced today that linux.conf.au will be held at the Australian National University campus next year, from 28 January to 2 February, 2013.

Conference Director Michael Still said that he was delighted with the announcement, and praised the work already put in by the Canberra committee to organise the bid. “We have a lot of work to do before January 2013, but we plan to deliver a great conference, and have some fun while we’re doing it.”

linux.conf.au is one of the foremost open source conferences in the world, and is considered the most prestigious in the southern hemisphere. Every year open source geeks from across the globe gather in Australia to meet their fellow technologists, share the latest ideas and innovations, and spend a week collaborating on free, open source software projects.

Canberra last hosted the conference in 2005, to universal acclaim. Eight years on, we are delighted to see the conference return to the capital.

For those wondering what Linux is, it’s a computer operating system of great reliability maintained by the community. It runs my netbook, the RiotACT webserver, and android smartphones amongst many other things.

Legend has it the linux penguin was inspired by a penguin at the Canberra Zoo biting Linus Torvalds.

Join the conversation

52
All Comments
  • All Comments
  • Website Comments
LatestOldest

err, sorry, but bouncing ball installs are beyond the average person? all of the distros I have installed have worked ok for me, including Mac OSX – it is based on Free BSD, Mach64 Kernel, after all.

Looking forward to next year’s event, as it means that the world will focus on Canberra, we will get to hear and see some great advances in community technology, and maybe the open source policy the government has will have some meaning at last.

Please no-one say ‘harden up’ or I’ll be forced to take drastic action. Like sulking. (More.)

LSWCHP said :

Lazy I said :

Love this comment from the clug mailing list in regards to this thread:

“Main think is that the RiotACT, and SlushDirt, exist because they appeal to the lowest common denominator. That appeal is not accidental.”

Src: https://lists.samba.org/archive/linux/2012-January/030960.html

*grabs popcorn*

My, they sound like a friendly and welcoming bunch of folks, don’t they?

I do note with thanks that the person who I described as patronising has, in fact, realised that his cold led him to possibly being patronising. But I must say that this has been a wonderful week for me on RiotACT. One person described me as a ‘bitch’ because I criticised a mothers’ group, in what was meant to be an amusing way, and now, at second hand, I have become the lowest common denominator because I criticised someone who offered to ‘hold my hand’ after basically calling me a dumb cunt because I admitted that I didn’t understand something and found the whole technology project difficult. Interesting how these points of view converge.

If I called someone an idiot because they didn’t understand the difference between Petrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets, I doubt that some snide little group of acolytes would defend me at second hand on another site.

Thanks for pointing out this discussion Lazy I. I hope your popcorn is still warm. I’m afraid this link confirms everything I was thinking about someone who is an outsider trying to understand something in a sphere where they are neither welcome nor competent.

I’ll just slink off now (as previously promised) and buy some Microsoft. At least I’ll be paying for the patronising git who helps me then. As you said, LSWCHP, these Linux people sound so very welcoming.

To the “i tried linux for a week” crowd, you obviously couldn’t get the paradigm shift.

working with home brew linux is no more for everyone than home brew beer.

But if you want to understand computers, there’s very little better and that knowledge goes a long way with other systems.

plus once you nail down a linux box to a task it’s pretty much bomb proof

Lazy I said :

Love this comment from the clug mailing list in regards to this thread:

“Main think is that the RiotACT, and SlushDirt, exist because they appeal to the lowest common denominator. That appeal is not accidental.”

Src: https://lists.samba.org/archive/linux/2012-January/030960.html

*grabs popcorn*

My, they sound like a friendly and welcoming bunch of folks, don’t they?

I recently installed Linux (xubuntu/xfce) on a new laptop. I have also installed windows from scratch.

They are as easy as each other to install.

Its getting the user programs to work.

To get the mobile broadband to work on the Linux box, I had to manually edit the connection strings. Fortunately, the broadband device worked on the windows box so I could Google what these parameters were.

To get the printer to work, I had to download a driver from the printer’s manufacturer’s website. The LPR driver didn’t work; the PPD driver crashed the system. The CUPS driver worked, after I downloaded and installed the CUPS application (oddly, not part of the distro). Unfortunately, this took me a week to work out. I had to download CUPS separately; I then had to add permissions to the users (me), then grant permissions to myself in the CUPS system.

I haven’t worked out how to burn a CD/DVD on the Linux box. The applications from the “Ubuntu Software Centre” point to “/dev/dvd” and can’t be remapped to “/media/” which is how they’re automatically mounted.

The backup program included with the distro, “Nepomuk”, returns the error message “…backup service not running. Backups can not be run without it”. Download KBackup, takes three hours to back up 10 Gb. Windows can backup 100Gb in under two hours.

So the issue is, that mostly Linux apps may or may not work, but even the ones that come in the distribution aren’t complete, and you have to download extra bits, and then some more, to get them to work. Linux is the software IKEA would sell: “some assembly required”. None of these issues ever came up on the windows box: the printer driver install process; the modem set up; the DVD ripping/burning process.

I’m ineluctably reminded of the Erasmus Smums quote: “…I don’t know what percentage of our time on any computer based project is spent getting the equipment to work right, but if I had a gardener who spent as much of the time fixing her shovel as we spend fooling with our computers, I’d buy her a good shovel. At least you can buy a good shovel”. My experience is that Linux is much much worse in this regard; and when you get them to work, they’re no better than the Windows applications.

So how do we get tickets?

Waiting For Godot4:47 pm 25 Jan 12

Linux is crap. Their Ubuntu OS is complicated and strictly for hard core nerds. I uninstalled it after more than a week of frustration in trying to get it to work properly.

Their open-source alternatives to paid programs are sadly deficient and an absolute joke when compared with Nero, Photoshop, and the other popular, highly regarded software. None of my programs (which installed quickly and easily with Windows and worked perfectly) would either install or work. There is a complicated scripting exercise you have to go thru before any programs work, or so I was told. Not even my Logitech webcam worked properly. Ubuntu’s controls for it didn’t even have a zoom function.

I would say Microsoft has nothing to fear from this cheap and nasty imitation. You get what you pay for. In this case you pay nothing and that’s exactly what you get.

Love this comment from the clug mailing list in regards to this thread:

“Main think is that the RiotACT, and SlushDirt, exist because they appeal to the lowest common denominator. That appeal is not accidental.”

Src: https://lists.samba.org/archive/linux/2012-January/030960.html

*grabs popcorn*

Erg0 said :

I’ve thought about giving Linux a try from time to time, but never really found a justification for the amount of time and effort it would take for me to effectively re-learn 17 years of accumulated knowledge on bending Windows to my will (more like 25 if you count DOS knowledge, which still comes in handy from time to time). This is partly due to simple inertia, and partly because I can’t really see how I, personally, will benefit from making the switch.

This is a genuine question: For the average Windows user, what is the actual benefit of switching a laptop/home PC to Linux?

If you’re a dedicated gamer, or if you use deep scripted code in MS Office, probably more pain than gain.

Other than that, though, lots, including:

* Freedom, as in speech. You’re free to tinker, to change, to add, to subtract, to share. Also freedom as in beer – if you don’t want or need to pay for support, it won’t cost you anything;

* Reliability. Linux is much more stable than Windows. As a direct result of its architecture, it’s also much more secure against malware;

* It plays nicely wind Windows. You can run Linux from a CD or a USB stick, you can install it next to Windows as a dual-boot system or you can run it from inside Windows in several ways, so you don’t have to make a choice until you’re ready to – or never, if you need to use both;

* Choice. There are lots of different distros and there are lots of different user interfaces – you can “shop around” and try them out until you find one you like. (Some people say this is a disadvantage, that the wide range of choice makes it harder);

* Ease of use. Many people believe that Linux is easier to use than Windows, though “ease of use” is often “what I’m familiar with” – there’s a learning curve, to be sure, though it’s not that steep if you use a distro like Mint, which most Windows users feel comfortable with from scratch;

* If you found DOS commands useful, you’ll feel right at home in a Linux terminal window, though you need never go there unless you want to;

* Vast amounts of free (as in speech and as in beer) software. Unless your needs are very specific, there’s a Linux app that’ll do what you need (given that you’ve read the Linux is not Windows link, above), and many (though not all) Windows programs can run directly from within Linux, using Wine.

There are others, but the best thing is that you can suck it and see without sacrificing Windows.

We rightly fear distro wars, but I’ll just say that I generally start people off with Mint (apart from anything else, it’s got all the video and audio stuff out of the box – you don’t have to install it yourself). But there’s no “right” distro – they’re all good.

imagesplat said :

Bits of this article “Linux is Not Windows” should offer some help at explaining some of the differences between the operating systems: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Thanks for the link, which more or less confirms my semi-informed opinion that Linux isn’t suitable for my purposes. I also like the tone of the article – it seems that most of the “mainstream” Linux coverage frames it as being aimed at supplanting Windows as the dominant desktop OS, which it seems is not the intent of the Linux community at all.

Erg0 said :

This is a genuine question: For the average Windows user, what is the actual benefit of switching a laptop/home PC to Linux?

That depends on what stuff someone needs their PC to do 🙂

Bits of this article “Linux is Not Windows” should offer some help at explaining some of the differences between the operating systems: http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Keijidosha said :

Lazy I said :

Anyone in industry would know that there is a hell of a lot of Linux in Government in Canberra, and that it’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

+1, Linux forms the backbone of many departments, although the shift towards Sharepoint is alarming.

Even then, that sharepoint server could be virtualised. ESX…. linux.

From an application and end user stand point, Windows.

From an infrastructure standpoint… virtualisation, SAN/NAS, databases, internal / external hosting and firewalls. Linux is the more widely used.

“For the average Windows user, what is the actual benefit of switching a laptop/home PC to Linux?”

Never* having to worry about viruses or malware?

* – practically never, that is.

Lazy I said :

Anyone in industry would know that there is a hell of a lot of Linux in Government in Canberra, and that it’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

+1, Linux forms the backbone of many departments, although the shift towards Sharepoint is alarming.

Deref said :

🙂 A most excellent thing. Perhaps our wholly-owned subsidiaries of Microsoft, aka our governments, will come along and learn something.

Judging by the generic anti-Microsoft trolling nature of your comment I gather you’re a clug regular.

Anyone in industry would know that there is a hell of a lot of Linux in Government in Canberra, and that it’s doing a lot of the heavy lifting behind the scenes.

Incidentally, this thread on Whirlpool shows a pretty good cross-section of Linux users, from the condescending jerks to the fanatical evangelists to the realists. And it’s only 73 pages long!

http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1803524

I’ve thought about giving Linux a try from time to time, but never really found a justification for the amount of time and effort it would take for me to effectively re-learn 17 years of accumulated knowledge on bending Windows to my will (more like 25 if you count DOS knowledge, which still comes in handy from time to time). This is partly due to simple inertia, and partly because I can’t really see how I, personally, will benefit from making the switch.

This is a genuine question: For the average Windows user, what is the actual benefit of switching a laptop/home PC to Linux?

johnboy said :

qbngeek said :

Until Linux works out of the box and is as polished as Windows is it will never be accepted by the masses. The biggest issues I hear are driver issues and the difficulty, for a new user, of finding and installing apps. The main excuses I hear from developers are ‘It is too hard to account for so many types of hardware’.

Oh please, almost any linux is easier to install than Windows. you just mostly buy wintel boxen with the thing already on it!

Come on, I recently installed Windoze 7 on a family members PC and all I did was whack the DVD in, hit next, select Australia, hit next a few more times adn bugger off while it did its thing for about an hour. Office was the same and Windows AntiVirus took about 2 seconds then they were ready to go.

Even Ubuntu isn’t that easy.

I personally love Linux, but I use W7 on my laptop because I can make everything work without a hassle and it will run all my apps and games with no issues or modifications. When there is an Android OS for PC, I will more than likely switch to that since Google already runs 80% of my life.

johnboy said :

qbngeek said :

Until Linux works out of the box and is as polished as Windows is it will never be accepted by the masses. The biggest issues I hear are driver issues and the difficulty, for a new user, of finding and installing apps. The main excuses I hear from developers are ‘It is too hard to account for so many types of hardware’.

Oh please, almost any linux is easier to install than Windows. you just mostly buy wintel boxen with the thing already on it!

Once again, it depends on the distro. There are those that are built around UIs and package management. There are others that certainly don’t have any hand holding.

qbngeek said :

Until Linux works out of the box and is as polished as Windows is it will never be accepted by the masses. The biggest issues I hear are driver issues and the difficulty, for a new user, of finding and installing apps. The main excuses I hear from developers are ‘It is too hard to account for so many types of hardware’.

Oh please, almost any linux is easier to install than Windows. you just mostly buy wintel boxen with the thing already on it!

Deref said :

LSWCHP said :

I am currently in Hell. Or to put it another way, I’m an old time Unix hacker who has suddenly been forced to do some development work under Windoze. Something inside me has been dying. This afternoon I actually wrote my own cross-thread comms library, because the OS is so lame. Unbelievable.

Poor bastard. I’ll pray to the FSM for you.

May the peace of “Bob” be upon you all, and the Blessed Anti-Virgin succour away your sins.

Disinformation said :

The biggest issues against linux being adopted by the average person isn’t the technical knowledge required, arrogance of the users, lack of driver support or any other reason that has been mentioned so far. The average person is willfully resistant to frustration. They don’t like it. They will give up if there is not sufficient motivation to overcome it.
This applies to every single person on the planet with every single skill that they need and don’t need. Most of the world has learned the windows way of things. Once they’ve done that, there is insufficient motivation to overcome the frustration of learning something else. For a rank beginner with no experience, the most intuitive (With the least frustration) interfaces to powerful computing capability are the most popular.

+eleventy billion

I run a linux programming box for Android development and I must say that the biggest enemy of Linux are Linux users. They seem to think that the world will one day wake up and go ‘Wow, Linux is awesome I have been so blind.’

Until Linux works out of the box and is as polished as Windows is it will never be accepted by the masses. The biggest issues I hear are driver issues and the difficulty, for a new user, of finding and installing apps. The main excuses I hear from developers are ‘It is too hard to account for so many types of hardware’.

The next big OS will be released by Google and if it is based on Linux then all the better. If not, the only hope for Linux is that the developing community pull their fingers out and make it as polished as humanly possible. When you have a development community that large and that active, it really shouldn’t be that hard.

Disinformation11:10 am 25 Jan 12

The biggest issues against linux being adopted by the average person isn’t the technical knowledge required, arrogance of the users, lack of driver support or any other reason that has been mentioned so far. The average person is willfully resistant to frustration. They don’t like it. They will give up if there is not sufficient motivation to overcome it.
This applies to every single person on the planet with every single skill that they need and don’t need. Most of the world has learned the windows way of things. Once they’ve done that, there is insufficient motivation to overcome the frustration of learning something else. For a rank beginner with no experience, the most intuitive (With the least frustration) interfaces to powerful computing capability are the most popular.

The iphone demonstrated that low frustration levels equal popularity.

It takes a very large amount of effort to keep things simple enough for the average person. Linux is finally putting the focus on making things easy. Now it is starting to accelerate in its adoption.

There is so much simple documentation available online on how to try linux out on an average PC or Laptop , that the only thing stopping someone from doing it is the resistance to trying it out.

Whoops…I meant:

Deref said :

Spectra said :

PS: LinuxMint is the One True Way. Can’t let a distro war go un-waded-into 🙂

😀 Aye, brother! All non-Mint users are foul sinners who should be drowned in spaghetti and meatballs!

Spectra said :

PS: LinuxMint is the One True Way. Can’t let a distro war go un-waded-into 🙂

😀 Aye, brother! All non-Mint users are foul sinners who

Spectra said :

The really funny thing about this comment is that you probably don’t realise how incredibly patronising it is.

I apologise unreservedly if it sounded patronising (I wrote it while feeling like crap with a nasty cold, so I probably misjudged the tone, but that’s not an excuse). That was not my intention. I was simply trying to make the point that you’d made a very negative assumption about the difficulty level and dismissed it out of hand as a result, but had clearly not so much as actually looked at it yourself. If you’re interested in trying it, my offer still stands (though I’d imagine you’d rather it be someone else – I’m sure any of the lovely people at CLUG would be equally happy to help you out). I’ll stop talking now.

Werd.

The biggest thing working against Linux is the number of patronising geeks in the community (not suggesting that you are one). The vast majority of the world’s computer users aren’t geeks and have no wish to be geeks but there are an awful (literally) lot of Linux users out there who look down on them as lesser beings.

We’re not all like that, and I hope people won’t judge us by that nasty and ignorant rump. Most of us are more than willing to help people take the first easy and tentative steps into Linux. I, too, have lots of friends who have made the transition and their most common comment is “if I’d known it was that easy I’d have done it years ago.”

LSWCHP said :

I am currently in Hell. Or to put it another way, I’m an old time Unix hacker who has suddenly been forced to do some development work under Windoze. Something inside me has been dying. This afternoon I actually wrote my own cross-thread comms library, because the OS is so lame. Unbelievable.

Poor bastard. I’ll pray to the FSM for you.

DermottBanana10:15 am 25 Jan 12

Spectra said :

Spoken like someone who’s never even tried.

With evangelists like this, is it any wonder the mainstream reject it?

The really funny thing about this comment is that you probably don’t realise how incredibly patronising it is.

I apologise unreservedly if it sounded patronising (I wrote it while feeling like crap with a nasty cold, so I probably misjudged the tone, but that’s not an excuse). That was not my intention. I was simply trying to make the point that you’d made a very negative assumption about the difficulty level and dismissed it out of hand as a result, but had clearly not so much as actually looked at it yourself. If you’re interested in trying it, my offer still stands (though I’d imagine you’d rather it be someone else – I’m sure any of the lovely people at CLUG would be equally happy to help you out). I’ll stop talking now.

mikal said :

There is an active Linux user’s group in Canberra (it meets tomorrow night in fact). If people are interested in trying Linux out I’m sure an installfest / live CD burning session could be arranged. So, are people interested in such a thing?

(I know the complaining on this thread is mostly about complaining for the sake of it. Sorry if I’ve ruined your fun.)

I keep meaning to go to that. Never have yet. I might get off my date and go along.

Anyone here been?

There is also a group that caters for interested users, http://www.pcug.org.au/LinuxSIG/

Its meetings are in day time so it attracts the interested retirees

There is an active Linux user’s group in Canberra (it meets tomorrow night in fact). If people are interested in trying Linux out I’m sure an installfest / live CD burning session could be arranged. So, are people interested in such a thing?

(I know the complaining on this thread is mostly about complaining for the sake of it. Sorry if I’ve ruined your fun.)

OpenYourMind6:18 am 25 Jan 12

LSWCHP said :

Spectra said :

…but is probably one of those things only accessible to people who know what they’re talking about in the first place

Spoken like someone who’s never even tried. If downloading and burning a DVD is beyond you, then yes, you’ll probably have difficulty getting Linux installed under your own steam.

That seems a bit harsh. You have to remember that the great majority of people are not technically inclined, so even the idea of an alternative boot device is simply going to invoke a collective WTF from most folks. And that’s not intended as a criticism of anybody, BTW.

Starting off in a hardcore manner like that, and then subsequently suggesting that Poetix could come to you for advice doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out somehow.

Exactly. And there in lies the whole problem with Linux and the Linux community. For the average Joe Punter, there’s no way I would recommend using Linux. There is this whole attitude of ‘hey you should use Linux, it’s better blah blah blah’, but then this superiority and assumed level of technical ability coupled with internal turf war over Linux distros, and linux packages. Win7 and OSX are so polished, the OS is packaged nicely with the computer and they’ve both reached a great level of stability and maturity. There’s not a lot of strong arguments for Average Joe to use Linux, but there’s lots of reasons not to such as lack of driver support, difficulty running apps especially as many of the things Joe Punter may be adding to their system are built and targeted at OSX or Win7.

Spectra said :

…but is probably one of those things only accessible to people who know what they’re talking about in the first place

Spoken like someone who’s never even tried. If downloading and burning a DVD is beyond you, then yes, you’ll probably have difficulty getting Linux installed under your own steam.

That seems a bit harsh. You have to remember that the great majority of people are not technically inclined, so even the idea of an alternative boot device is simply going to invoke a collective WTF from most folks. And that’s not intended as a criticism of anybody, BTW.

Starting off in a hardcore manner like that, and then subsequently suggesting that Poetix could come to you for advice doesn’t seem like it’s going to work out somehow.

Spectra said :

…but is probably one of those things only accessible to people who know what they%u2019re talking about in the first place

Spoken like someone who’s never even tried. If downloading and burning a DVD is beyond you, then yes, you’ll probably have difficulty getting Linux installed under your own steam. If not, well that’s about all there is to dipping your toe in the water. Download, burn, boot off the DVD and try it out.

This is why people end up spending so much; the total gap between %u2018geeks%u2019 (their word) and the rest.

If you want to try Linux out, and want your hand held, there’s probably a dozen people on this site alone who’d be more than happy to help out – myself included. If you have any suggestions about how we “geeks” could bridge the “total gap”, I can promise you they’d love to hear it. Nothing would make us happier than seeing more people using Linux. For the record, I have several friends, lawyers, actuaries and teachers who use linux – nary a geek amongst them. Have an Android smartphone? Hey, you’re already running it! I can’t offer a lower barrier to entry than that.

That%u2019s the chasm where Steve Jobs made his money.

Android phones outsold iPhones by something in the region of 2:1 last year. Not exactly what I’d consider a chasm. Unless you’re suggesting that 2/3 of the population is “geeks” and the rest are on the other side of some gap or other. Or in the gap. I’m not sure I fully followed your metaphor, to be honest.

The really funny thing about this comment is that you probably don’t realise how incredibly patronising it is. At least I got one laugh out of a thread where all the intentional jokes are well over my wimpy and uneducated head. I’ll leave the rest of it to people like you who deserve to be here!

(P.S. Looks like the eunuchs are messing up my apostrophes again…)

dvaey said :

mikal said :

Freyberg said :

That would be the Taronga Zoo – bit north from the ACT 🙂

Nup. Linus was assaulted at Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TheStoryBehindTux.jpg

I read that first comment, and was sure I wasnt imagining being at the Canberra Zoo and Aquarium with him when he first saw the penguin..

It sure doesnt seem like 15 years ago though, time flies..

Off topic I know but what the hell…

I’ve never met him, but everything I’ve ever seen has indicated to me that…how shall I put this diplomatically…Linus Isn’t Easy To Like. Technically outstanding, yeah, but he seems like someone who believes his own PR, more than most of us would. I made this assessment during his dispute with Andrew Tannenbaum, and it’s been reinforced over the years through a number of episodes such as his totally unnecessary spray against the Subversion folks.

Comments anyone? Confirmation? Refutation? Outraged abuse?

I am currently in Hell. Or to put it another way, I’m an old time Unix hacker who has suddenly been forced to do some development work under Windoze. Something inside me has been dying. This afternoon I actually wrote my own cross-thread comms library, because the OS is so lame. Unbelievable.

So, this news is the best thing that has happened to me all day. Tridge will be dancing in the streets.

PS: LinuxMint is the One True Way. Can’t let a distro war go un-waded-into 🙂

…but is probably one of those things only accessible to people who know what they’re talking about in the first place

Spoken like someone who’s never even tried. If downloading and burning a DVD is beyond you, then yes, you’ll probably have difficulty getting Linux installed under your own steam. If not, well that’s about all there is to dipping your toe in the water. Download, burn, boot off the DVD and try it out.

This is why people end up spending so much; the total gap between ‘geeks’ (their word) and the rest.

If you want to try Linux out, and want your hand held, there’s probably a dozen people on this site alone who’d be more than happy to help out – myself included. If you have any suggestions about how we “geeks” could bridge the “total gap”, I can promise you they’d love to hear it. Nothing would make us happier than seeing more people using Linux. For the record, I have several friends, lawyers, actuaries and teachers who use linux – nary a geek amongst them. Have an Android smartphone? Hey, you’re already running it! I can’t offer a lower barrier to entry than that.

That’s the chasm where Steve Jobs made his money.

Android phones outsold iPhones by something in the region of 2:1 last year. Not exactly what I’d consider a chasm. Unless you’re suggesting that 2/3 of the population is “geeks” and the rest are on the other side of some gap or other. Or in the gap. I’m not sure I fully followed your metaphor, to be honest.

mikal said :

Freyberg said :

That would be the Taronga Zoo – bit north from the ACT 🙂

Nup. Linus was assaulted at Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TheStoryBehindTux.jpg

I read that first comment, and was sure I wasnt imagining being at the Canberra Zoo and Aquarium with him when he first saw the penguin..

It sure doesnt seem like 15 years ago though, time flies..

PantsMan said :

PantsMan said :

I run FeeDOS.

Ops, I meant “FreeDOS”.

I have to use PS/2 keyboards becasue that’s all that’s supported, and the only one I can find has a dodgy “r”.

We all are sinners… however, some obviously sin more than others.

Freyberg said :

That would be the Taronga Zoo – bit north from the ACT 🙂

Nup. Linus was assaulted at Canberra Zoo and Aquarium. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TheStoryBehindTux.jpg

PantsMan said :

Dilandach said :

johnboy said :

Duffbowl said :

The blood of heretics that doubt the power of Gentoo… 🙂

You’ll still be compiling the drivers for your death ray when the ubuntites mow you down!

…just before the glorious slackware empire enslaves all. One distro to rule them all.

I run FeeDOS.

Ops, I meant “FreeDOS”.

I have to use PS/2 keyboards becasue that’s all that’s supported, and the only one I can find has a dodgy “r”.

Dilandach said :

johnboy said :

Duffbowl said :

The blood of heretics that doubt the power of Gentoo… 🙂

You’ll still be compiling the drivers for your death ray when the ubuntites mow you down!

…just before the glorious debian frees all. One distro to free them all.

fixed*

Dilandach said :

johnboy said :

Duffbowl said :

The blood of heretics that doubt the power of Gentoo… 🙂

You’ll still be compiling the drivers for your death ray when the ubuntites mow you down!

…just before the glorious slackware empire enslaves all. One distro to rule them all.

I run FeeDOS.

johnboy said :

Duffbowl said :

The blood of heretics that doubt the power of Gentoo… 🙂

You’ll still be compiling the drivers for your death ray when the ubuntites mow you down!

…just before the glorious slackware empire enslaves all. One distro to rule them all.

Duffbowl said :

The blood of heretics that doubt the power of Gentoo… 🙂

You’ll still be compiling the drivers for your death ray when the ubuntites mow you down!

Jivrashia said :

DO NOT TALK ABOUT DISTROS at these venues.

You will see blood…

The blood of heretics that doubt the power of Gentoo… 🙂

Thanks for explaining what Linux is. It sounds like a great idea in allowing free access, but is probably one of those things only accessible to people who know what they’re talking about in the first place. The Wiki entry was enough to me feel hopeless. This is why people end up spending so much; the total gap between ‘geeks’ (their word) and the rest.

That’s the chasm where Steve Jobs made his money.

DO NOT TALK ABOUT DISTROS at these venues.

You will see blood…

🙂 A most excellent thing. Perhaps our wholly-owned subsidiaries of Microsoft, aka our governments, will come along and learn something.

That would be the Taronga Zoo – bit north from the ACT 🙂

Sweet. Something to look forward to.

Daily Digest

Want the best Canberra news delivered daily? Every day we package the most popular Riotact stories and send them straight to your inbox. Sign-up now for trusted local news that will never be behind a paywall.

By submitting your email address you are agreeing to Region Group's terms and conditions and privacy policy.